Conventionally, candies are manufactured by incorporating a fruit juice(s), a favoring(s) and a sour agent(s), among others, in a main material composition having a sweet taste, comprising sugar, thick malt syrup (syrup produced by converting starch to sugars) and/or the like, heating and blending the resulting mixture, cutting and stamping the soft or plastic compound, followed by cooling (stamping method) or by casting the compound in a molten state into molds and, after cooling and solidification, releasing candies from the molds (casting method).
In addition to such sugar and starch syrup (thick malt syrup) used as main raw materials of candies, sugar alcohols have become preferred as sugarless materials from a viewpoint of preventing dental caries and/or diabetes. Sugar alcohols are lower in calorific value than sugar, so persons interested in dieting also prefer them.
As for the sugar alcohols, reduced starch syrup, reduced malt sugar syrup, reduced maltose (maltitol), xylitol, erythritol and reduced palatinose, for example, are abundantly used as main raw materials for candies.
While xylitol is as sweet as sugar, reduced starch syrup, reduced malt sugar syrup, reduced maltose (maltitol), erythritol and reduced palatinose, among others, are lower in intensity of sweetness than sugar and different in quality of sweetness from sugar.
As a result, sugarless candies made by using sugar alcohols taste more watery or weaker than sugar-based candies.
Therefore, for the purposes of supplementing the insufficient intensity of sweetness and improving the quality of sweetness of reduced starch syrup, reduced malt sugar syrup, reduced maltose (maltitol) and like sugar alcohols, investigations and proposals have been made concerning the incorporation of various flavor components. The term “intensity of sweetness” as used herein means the degree or extent of sweetness, while the “quality of sweetness” refers to the quality or characteristic of sweetness. As described later herein, both the features each can be specifically evaluated in a sensory test. The intensity of sweetness, for instance, is relatively evaluated with the intensity of sugar being taken as 100. The quality of sweetness is the qualitative feel deeply associated with a flavor and/or taste and also can be evaluated in a sensory test. The desired goals are the same level of intensity of sweetness as that of sugar and the sugar-like natural quality of sweetness.
Thus, for example, known in the art are a sweetness-enhancing method comprising using maltol to thereby reduce the proportion of sugar (cf. Patent Document 1), a sweetness-enhancing method comprising using furaneol to thereby reduce the proportion of sugar (cf. Patent Document 2), a taste-improving method comprising using aspartame in combination with one or more species selected from among maltol, sotolone, vanillin, cyclotene and furfural to provide aspartame with a sweet, deep and mild taste (cf. Patent Document 3), a method of enhancing the sweetness of foods and drinks by adding one or both of cyclotene and sotolone (cf. Patent Document 4), a flavor-improving composition comprising sotolone or 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5H)-furanone and one or more species selected from among dimethyl sulfide, methanethiol, hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide and soups and other foods comprising the same (cf. Patent Document 5), and foods comprising (a) a sweetener high in intensity of sweetness, for example aspartame, and (b) a p-menthane skeleton-containing derivative (e.g. menthyl acetate), wherein the content level of the component (b) is not higher than the threshold thereof (cf. Patent Document 6).    [Patent Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,441    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Publication No. S50 (1975)-140659    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Publication No. H02 (1990)-276553    [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent No. 2933975    [Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-79336    [Patent Document 6] Japanese Patent Publication No. H10 (1998)-313819